There is a Chinese restaurant here in town with a great long menu. If you look closely, the menu consists of beef with broccoli, chicken with broccoli, shrimp with broccoli, pork with broccoli,etc. The dishes are few but the variations are many. I decided to use a similar principle to plan my menus for this upcoming year. I needed something simpler than what I had. This is what I came up with: a general category for each day and variations within the category:
Lunch Rotation
Pasta
Mac and cheese (homemade)
Pasta with a red sauce
Sandwiches
Grilled cheese (various types with different breads/cheeses)
Tuna/salmon
Chicken spread
Grilled Chicken
Ham and cheese
Turkey and cheese
Quesadillas with various fillings (leftover beef, pork or chicken)
Soup
Hamburger soup
Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
Tomato soup with tortellini/raviolis and mixed vegetables
Rachel Ray soup (from Cooking Rocks!)
Rainbow Soup
Baked potatoes with fixings (some kind of meat, or bacon, cheese,etc)
Leftovers either as is or morphed into something else
Each lunch will have fresh fruits and vegetables with it.
Dinner Rotation
Ground Beef
Picadillo with brown rice
Tacos (plain tacos or taco salad or taco pie or taco over potatoes)
Tater tots casserole
Slow Cooker Meals (all these are from Allrecipes.com)
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ (
Easy Slow Cooker French Dip
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Awesome Slow Cooker Roast
*some side dishes that will go with these: cole slaw, sweet potatoes, baked fries, baked beans, different vegetables, chips-in a pinch-,egg noodles etc)
Pasta
Fabulous Fettuccine
Spaghetti Carbonara
Ravioli with tomato-cream sauce
Pasta with pesto
Tortellini
Pastina Chicken casserole
Stir Fry
Chicken, beef or pork cooked with fresh vegetables and served over rice or noodles (varying the sauce according to Allrecipes,com article)
Homemade Pizza
Saturdays and Sundays will be for grilling in large quantities that can be used during the week or freeze. Also for trying new recipes.
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